Veela
by Alytiger
Summary: [ONESHOT] His first birthday after the war, Draco wakes up with a need to find /her/. Hermione is less than thrilled. [Written for Chester99]


_Written for Chester99 bc they rock with the constant reviews XD more specifically bc they were the 100th review on my (now complete) fic I'll Give You The World._

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The moment that the pretty blondes in blue walked into the Great Hall, it was abuzz with conversation. Within the hour everyone knew that two quarter Veela were on Hogwarts grounds. Another conclusion was quickly drawn. There was another student at Hogwarts who shared the same iridescent blonde hair as the French sisters, one Draco Malfoy. Draco quickly owled home after the first person questioned him about his heritage. A few days later, Draco got an answer. Hundreds of years ago a Malfoy man married a Veela woman and they had children that have gifted every future generation the, now signature, Malfoy blonde hair. Even though male Veela are exceedingly rare and the likelihood of Draco ever having even the slightest tendencies other than his blonde locks, he became instantly more popular than before. Malfoy could be heard crowing at any point in time that "I always knew I was ridiculously handsome. This just proves it. Veela are gorgeous creatures and everyone loves them, just like they do me." After the names were called from the Goblet, Draco quickly fell onto the backburner of most people's thoughts, much to his chagrin, and the fact that the Malfoy's were part Veela left people's minds.

The tournament continued, the Dark Lord rose, and began the war in earnest. The war was fought, and many died, but in the end the Light won and the Wizarding World was saved. In a move that shocked everyone who knew her, Hermione decided not to go back for her eighth year. In a move that shocked no one, Harry and Ron decided not to go back either. The Trio set out into the Wizarding World with jobs in the Auror Department and a spring in their step. Everything was looking up in the wake of the battle.

The morning of his 18th birthday, just one month after the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy woke up with a twisted feeling in his gut. Nothing felt right. He felt hot in his own skin and knew the second he found something it would make the feeling go away. He couldn't quite figure out what the feeling was though. He dragged himself out of bed and headed to his potions cabinet. He combed through looking for something to fix the discomfort. Nothing seemed quite right: not anti-nausea, not headache, not indigestion. Draco tipped back a Pepper-Up Potion and hopped for the best. After his ears were done smoking Draco felt mildly better, there was more of a pull than a discomfort now. Practically on autopilot, Draco got dressed and headed out the door of the Manor. He had no set destination in mind, he just began walking. He walked for what felt like miles before he finally ended up in Diagon Alley. The sun was high in the sky and Draco was sweating uncomfortably but he could feel it: whatever was pulling him was close by. He turned a corner and felt his heart sing as he laid eyes on Hermione Granger. As his soul rejoiced Draco's head screamed; "No! Not Granger!" He physically jerked himself backwards and ran full tilt in the opposite direction, making an involuntary pained sound as he got farther and farther away from the former Gryffindor. Once he physically could not force his body farther away from her, he stopped. He bemoaned his fate and then spent the next eternity shadowing her from a distance.

After 48 hours without sleep Draco was more Veela than man at that point. His teeth were pointed, and his hair was wild. His eyes glowed molten silver and his nails had lengthened into razor sharp claws. The purple bags under his eyes and the scruff on his face spoke to his tiredness. On that faithful Sunday morning, Hermione made the mistake of stepping out of the line of sight of the people on the street. Draco, unable to control himself, pounced. He wrapped his arms around her midsection and inhaled the scent coming from her neck. He rubbed his head against her and _purred_ with joy. After a minute he came back to himself and leaned back to get a good look at her face. When they made eye contact Hermione looked even more confused than she was before.

"Malfoy?!" The brunette could not believe that her former rival had his arms wrapped around her like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Hello Hermione." He nuzzled her one more time and took another long smell from her collarbones.

"Why are you sniffing me?" She seemed from in confusion, stiff and leaning slightly away from Draco's steel embrace.

"You smell divine."

"Thanks?" Hermione wasn't sure what the most confusing part of this exchange was: the fact that she was so calm, or the fact that it was Draco Malfoy. "I'm… trying out a new body wash." Draco just hummed and continued to press himself as close to Hermione as possible. "Can… Can you let go of me… now?"

"Mhm" Draco gave Hermione one last squeeze before releasing her, not stepping back at all.

Hermione sighed and took a step back, Draco took a half-step forward. She sighed once more and grabbed his hand. "Hold on" and with a twist the pair ended up outside the gates of Malfoy Manor. "Look, I'm not having this conversation with you in an alleyway and I refuse to see what would happen if I just popped by the Burrow with you so it's going to have to be here. Either hurry up and take me inside or stop being strange, and I can pretend this exchange never happened. Thanks."

Draco blinked slowly before nodded and striding through the gates, still holding on to Hermione's hand. He dragged her up the winding drive and into the imposing structure. He led her to what appeared to be a homework room. There were shelves full of Hogwarts textbooks and a large desk in the center of the room, a leather chair sat next to the bookshelf. Draco dragged the desk chair over to the bookshelf and gestured for her to take the other. The pair sat down, and Draco began his tale. "Well I woke up on Friday and…"

"So, you've got no idea what's going on?" Hermione asked sometime later.

"Well, after talking it over I have one theory, but it doesn't make sense, it was so long ago." Hermione looked expectantly at Draco. "I'm not sure if you remember the quarter Veela that attended during the TriWizard Tournament?"

"Remember? Fleur ended up marrying Bill! She's practically my sister-in-law."

Draco blinked. "Um, okay, well… A couple hundred years ago one of my ancestors married a Veela, a full one, and that's the last time we've had creature blood inserted into our bloodline. On top of the fact that male Veela are so rare we didn't think anything would come of it. When my majority passed with no effects we assumed that nothing came of it, just like it did when my father came of age."

"Amazing. A delay in your inheritance. The stress from the War must have stopped it from coming in when it should have. I can't imagine living with Voldemort would allow something like that to trigger." She looked off into space. "It could also be the fact that the gene is so faint that delayed the onset. I do wonder what caused it to appear in you if this gene has been dormant for so long…" Hermione looked at Draco. "Well we could always ask Bill and Fleur. Who better to ask than Veela and her mate about all this?" She nodded to herself. "Of course, doing some preliminary research before we go is only polite. We need to have a basic understanding of what is going on before we barge in asking random things."

Hermione stood and walked to the door. She paused with the open door in her hand, "Well, aren't you going to show me to the library? We've got things to do! I'll also need to borrow an owl, so I can ask Fleur if it's alright for us to stop by later for a chat about your new condition."

Dumbfounded, Draco complied. He summoned an elf to fetch an owl and guided Hermione to the Main Library. They began searching through the stacks and managed to unearth a many tome about Veela and one that mentioned the Malfoy strand in passing. They scored through the books and found practically nothing that the pair did not already know from their research about Veela from fourth year. "Well this was a waste of time. These books didn't tell us anything!"

"Honestly Malfoy, do you pay attention to anything. All these books about every little topic and all we could find were some basic level knowledge and one genealogy book that mentioned your however-great-grandmother in passing." She paused, as if waiting for him to catch up. "Obviously the helpful books about Veela are going to be somewhere different."

"Well there is my father's private library, but only he's allowed in there. I could always have an elf go and grab up what we need." He called for an elf and soon the little creature returned with more books. These were obviously old tomes and they all had 'Veela' somewhere in the title.

"See? All the information we need, right here." She cast a glace out a window and gasped. Casting a _tempus_ Hermione stood from the table they were at. "Well those books will have to wait; we're late to Shell Cottage! Fleur expected us twenty minutes ago! We're late to dinner! How rude of us!"

Hermione walked towards the door and Draco caught up when she had gotten halfway down the hall. "If you'd stop I could apparate us out of the Manor and then you could take us to Shell Cottage and we wouldn't be any later than we already are."

Hermione stopped. "Oh. I didn't think of that." She halted, and Draco crashed into her back. He wrapped his arms around her once more and with a twist the pair was outside the gates of the manor. Hermione centered herself and thought about the little cottage by the sea and a moment later the pair was standing on the cliff side. Hermione knocked on the door and it was opened almost immediately by the French woman. Hermione raised her hands in defeat. "I'm so sorry Fleur. We got caught up in research and-"  
"Say no more 'Ermione." The Frenchman laughed. "I know all about 'ow you lose time when researching. Dinner has been under a warming charm for a bit. It vill continue to keep a moment longer." She stepped back from the door, allowing her guests to enter her home as she called over her shoulder. "Beel! Zey 'ave arrived now! You owe me five Galleons! It eez before eight!"

Draco just shook his head in confusion at the scene in front of him. How everything could be loud with only four people in the home, he did not know. All he did know was that he stepped in between Hermione and the man who came down the stairs. He did not even realize the way he had situated himself until Bill went to give Hermione a hug and Draco was practically sandwiched between the pair. When Hermione stepped around Draco to hug Hermione, his eyes went molten silver and he let out a muffled angry trill.

Fleur clucked. "Now now Draco, my Beel means no 'arm. 'E just wants to say 'ello to 'Ermione. No need to freak out."

Draco shook his head to clear it as Hermione and Bill stepped apart from one another. "Is he going to be like that every time I try and hug someone I know?"

Fleur frowned. "I'm not sure how Veela 'e eez so I cannot know. It could be zat 'e could sense zee werewolf in Beel or it could be zat you have not sealed your bond." She shrugged Frenchly. "I am only a quarter. I did not in'erit many of zee traits and Veela are a secretive bunch." She held out her hands in a 'what can you do' gesture. "I will share all I know but it eez not much."

Hermione sighed. "I was hoping you would be more of a help but I'm willing to listen to anything that you have to tell us about what's going on. Draco practically attacked me in broad daylight and freaked out about Bill trying to tell me hello. I don't want this happening all the time." She paused. "You also mentioned bonding? Are we going to have to do that? I would really rather prefer to not bond to Malfoy. Just keeping him from going feral again is all I would really rather do."

Draco spoke up. "Wait, what about me? I'm the one who's actually affected here! Why can't I walk too far away from Granger? I don't want to spend the rest of my life on a tether that revolves around her!" He threw his hands in the air. "I woke up two days ago and this need in my gut to never leave her side hasn't faded. I refuse to live the rest of my life feeling like I'm missing something just because Granger doesn't want to touch me!"

Hermione started. She had hadn't thought about what this must be like for Malfoy. She slowly reached her hand out and took Draco's hand. The tension that had been building in his body abated. Neither of them looked at each other.

Fleur sat down. "When I first met Beel I felt complete. I could see my heart in front of me and when he walked out of zee room I felt zee loss in my soul. Zee feeling left after a few minutes." She smiled. "Zat was how I knew 'e was zee one. But I was able to leave 'im alone. We did not speak for a while after we first met. We did not bond for much longer after that." She gave a Gaelic shrug. "It could be the fact zat 'e eez a 'e or it could be something about the Malfoy and Black bloodlines mixing. I do not know. I am sorry I could not be more of a 'elp 'Ermione."

"You actually did help." She pulled out a scrap of parchment and a pencil from her pocket and began to jot down notes. "I had never considered that before but based on this quick calculation there is a 60% chance of that gene activating the other one and the elasticity of it would factor for the rare part." She looked up after a few minutes and smiled. "I think that this has a real shot at actually being a viable hypothesis." She put her notes away. "Now we should probably start eating before it gets much later. I would like to go back to the Manor and get some research done before I head home and face Molly's wrath for being too busy for Sunday night dinner at the Burrow."

They all sat down to eat; Draco looked sideways at Hermione as he wondered what could possibly have been the breakthrough she made after Fleur's offhanded comment. He also pulled faces whenever Bill would seem like he was getting to close to Hermione; she fixed that by resting her hand on his whenever he would start to get fussy. The rest of the visit was mostly uneventful and then they left to head back to Malfoy Manor.

After combing through the rest of the books on Veela and the books on the Metamorphmagus ability Hermione turned to Draco triumphantly. "I've done it. I've figured out what happened." Draco perked up for the first time. "The Metamorphmagus gene from your mother's side of the family triggered the latent Veela gene from your father. There really isn't a better scenario for reviving a dormant gene than the malleable recessive Morphing gene." She grinned. "It acted as an anchor for the Veela gene, gave it something to latch onto. The subtle shifting of the Metemorphagus triggered the Veela one and created you. I can only guess why you didn't come into your inheritance when you became sixteen had to do with the stress of the War and the pressure you yourself had been put under by Voldemort." Draco practically threw himself backwards. "Honestly Draco, he's dead. It's fine. Now as I was saying. This specific combination is the only thing I can think of to have triggered your transformation. After such a long time dormant it normally takes the introduction of the same defect for it to show again in a line, but that's the beauty of the Metemorphagus gene! I can be anything at all! It's really honestly a scientific marvel. I'm fascinated. I'd love a blood sample. Possible a cheek swap if you didn't mind."

"I don't think I like being referred to as a 'scientific marvel', I just want to not feel as crazy as I did earlier today ever again." He stepped back into her personal space. "We could do that by having you move into the Manor with me. The Weasel's wouldn't want me, and I don't particularly want to live in an underground hovel or whatever it is they live in." "They do not live in an underground hovel. It's called the Burrow and it's very charming. It looks like something out of a fairy tale. But more to the point, I am not moving out of the Burrow. I am going to stay with the Weasleys. They've had a very rough couple of months and I am not going to just abandon them because you get nutty. We can come up with a better solution to your problem than me never leaving you side."

"You not living with me sounds like a new version of hell. My guts just twisted together." Draco did indeed look like he might be sick. "I don't want to turn into the mindless _thing_ again, just waiting to pounce." He shutters. "It was awful. I needed you so bad it hurt."

Hermione frowned. "Well we can't have that happening. I guess I could come over once a day to 'reset' the countdown to crazy, but I do have a life so you can't expect me to set hours of my life aside just so you can get your fix. I refuse to enable you."

Time passed, Hermione and Draco fell into an interesting rhythm. She would go to work in the mornings, have lunch with Harry and Ron at the Ministry, spend the afternoon with Draco at the Manor, and then pop back home in time for dinner. When she had been having a particularly exhausting day or just didn't want to go back to the noise and the bustle of the Burrow, she would stay until late into the night at the Manor, combing through the stacks and reading with Draco's head in her lap. After one particularly long day Hermione fell asleep in the library. She awoke the next morning in a large bed with Draco's arm wrapped around her waist. "Hmmm, good morning Hermione." He murmured with his face pressed between her shoulder blades.

"Draco? What are we doing in bed?"

"You fell asleep. I noticed when you dropped your book and it hit me in the cheek." Rolling over Hermione noticed that his cheek did look slightly swollen. "So I brought you to my room so you wouldn't wake up and be stiff."

"I'm sorry I accidentally hit you, but you should have woken me up and sent me home." She paused, noticing for the first time the light coming through the windows. "Wait… what time is it?"

"Don't worry, you have a little over two hours before you need to be at work."

Hermione sat up suddenly. "Draco! I never went home last night! Everyone is probably worried sick! Oh this is awful, I need to leave now! They've probably been up all night searching for me!" She sprung out of bed and practically ran to the floo, tossing powder in and calling out her destination. She stumbled through the floo at the Burrow surprised to see that everything was quiet. She looked down at herself for the first time and noticed that she wasn't in the robes she wore to work yesterday, she was in fact wearing what was probably Draco's pants and old Quidditch jersey.

Molly, having heard Hermione stumble in, stuck her head out from the kitchen. "Finally home dear?" She tutted. "Well doesn't it look like _someone_ had fun last night. He doesn't cook breakfast?" She went back into the kitchen. "Well go take a shower before you come in here Hermione dear. Harry and Ron are still asleep so they won't be asking questions as long as you clean up. Do glamour anything unsightly will you dear? It's only polite." Hermione turned and shuffled up the stairs, feeling very much like a child that had been scolded even though Molly was cool as a cucumber throughout their exchange.

Hermione made sure that she went home every night for the next week, but she managed to fall sleep once more when she was researching old curses for a case that she and her partner, Susan Bones, were working on. The morning after when she woke up she sighed and got dressed in her own robes before heading back to the Burrow. Molly didn't outwardly say anything about the fact that she stayed out all night, but Hermione could feel the judgment radiating from the woman as she made Hermione breakfast. "You know dear, when I was your age you called to tell someone you weren't going to be coming home." There was an unspoken "but granted, we never stayed out all night like that" in her silence. Hermione choked down her food and stood from the table. "Thank you for breakfast Molly, but I need to finish getting ready for work. I'll be sure to call next time." Molly smiled, but it seemed chilly.

That afternoon Hermione and Draco were laying side by side on the floor of the solarium. Hermione was complaining about work and Molly when Draco cut her off. "Why don't you just move all your stuff over here. This way you can avoid being judged by Molly when you accidentally fall asleep."

"That does sound nice." She rolled over, kicking her feet lazily in the air. "But-"

"Plus, you still get to see the whole Weasel clan once a week at dinner, so you won't be leaving them behind forever."

Hermione was thoughtful. "That's true." She sat up. "I should probably go home and tell everyone." Draco nodded. "You should join me, I'm not sure if everyone knows where I go every night."

Draco sat up hurriedly. "Nononononononono we don't need to do that! You just tell them that you're moving out, take your stuff, and then come live with me happily ever after." He gave a weak smile, knowing in his heart that he had no choice in the matter but begging anyways.

She laughed and kissed him, sufficiently stunning him into quiet. "It'll be fine Draco I promise." The pair left the Manor to break the news to the Weasley family. It went about as well as could be expected, which is to say that there was a lot of yelling by two boys.

Hermione and Draco sat in front of a fire, cuddling. "I love you."

"I love you too." Hermione tilted her head for a kiss, one that was gladly given to her. "I'm going to love you forever and there's nothing you can do about it."

Draco grinned. "Speaking of forever…" He accio'ed a small box from across the room. "For you."

Hermione removes the ribbon and opens the lid to see a necklace with the Malfoy crest as a pendant. "Harry told me that it's generally a ring in the Muggle World, but there aren't many rings in the Malfoy vault that aren't cursed in some way so I figured this would do."

"Oh Draco." Hermione lifted the necklace from the small box. "I love it." She placed it around her neck before moving her hair out of the way. "Put it on for me?"

"Is that a yes?" He asked, closing the clasp and kissing the back of her neck.

"Of course, you silly Veela." She cried as she turned and kissed him full on the mouth, grinning the whole while.


End file.
